Dani Rowe thrilled to secure second place at Tour de Yorkshire women's race

Dani Rowe was delighted that her effort to gain seconds in intermediate sprints paid off, as her third place finish on the final stage of the Tour de Yorkshire resulted in a second place overall finish.

Fresh off her bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games, Rowe was riding for the Great Britain cycling team the past two days on home roads.

"I think a lot of people had a break after the commonwealth games but I had my sights set on this race," Rowe said.

"I went back to my team and road Liège [-Bastogne-Liège] and had good legs there, which surprised me and I thought maybe I can actually ride Yorkshire."

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The third stage came down to an all out slog up the Cow and Calf climb out of Ilkley, with Rowe's research of the route a factor in pacing her effort.

"It was really, really hard. I recced the stage on Tuesday and rode the last half so I knew how hard it was and how long it ran for in the last 200 metres.

"So I was trying to stay within my effort and at one point at the bottom I got a bit gapped but I didn’t panic and I knew it was going to come back together.

"I thought if they kept this up then fair play to them, but thankfully they couldn’t and it meant I just reeled them back."

However it was crucial time bonuses that were pivotal in Rowe securing her second place in the general classification on yesterday's stage into Doncaster and today's summit finish.

"The sprints meant everything as if I didn’t have any sprint seconds I would have been third overall so I’m really glad I went for it now," she added.

"I come from a sprint background, but I’ve never been in that pinnacle sprint finish in trying to go for those seconds, so it was nice that it paid off."